Competency #3

For our third competency we will be dealing with podcasts. Podcasting has become a popular way for libraries to get information to their patrons. Patrons can listen to podcasts on a variety of topics such as book reviews, author’s readings, or programming events.

Podcasts are also a way for librarians to get useful information. I love helping patrons find a good book to read, but sadly I don’t have enough time to do that much reading these days. I find that podcasts of book reviews are very helpful in keeping up with books that have been published recently so that I can then recommend them to patrons. Podcasts are also very helpful for keeping up with what is going on at other libraries and for coming up with programming ideas.

Using Google http://www.google.com/ I looked at a number of sites that had podcasts available. The best site I found was the website http://www. LibrarySpot.com. Its podcast section offered a wide variety of interesting links to podcasts on everything from book reviews on the “All About Books” program on NPR (http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=10050999 ), to ‘Podictionary’ which gives a history of words you thought you knew (http://podictionary.com/ ), to podcasts about events happening at the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/whatson/downloads/index.html).

Resources like this are very helpful to me in my work. I can use them to develop new programs, to get online training, and to expand my knowledge of available fiction and recently published books. All of which lets me provide better service to my patrons.